Thursday, October 31, 2013

(Annapolis, MD)- Eastport Yacht Club race committee hosted their annual
Fall Brawl regatta for 25 ambitious J/ 70 sailors this past weekend on
the Chesapeake Bay. The race committee wasted no time making sure their
starting line was clear for starts and did a great job in keeping things
moving. The regatta was held over two days in moderate to heavy air and
lumpy seas with five races on Saturday and three more to wrap things up
on Sunday. Competitors came from up and down the East Coast, with
out-of-state sailors — primarily from Massachusetts and New York —
outnumbering locals in the top 10 by the time the racing was done.

The YOUNG GUNS team came up from St. Mary’s College of Maryland and
dominated the 24-boat J/70 Fall Brawl fleet from the start last weekend.
St. Mary’s was led by Venezuelan Olympic hopeful Victor Diaz de Leon,
borrowing a boat from the skipper on whose team Diaz de Leon had sailed a
couple weeks earlier in the J/70 North Americans.

Their first day’s keeper finishes of 1-1-3-1 put the YOUNG GUNS so far
ahead of the pack by the time the fleet came ashore on Saturday evening
that they could afford to slack off a little on the second day and still
take the overall win by a comfortable margin.

Taking
a comfortable second was Jud Smith, amassing a solid record on day one
to stay in the hunt with a 10-2-5-4-1 scoreline. Going into the last
day of racing, Smith still had a solid mathematical chance of grabbing
the lead, but a 9-4-5 tally added a quick 18 pts to their score to keep
them in second. Meanwhile, the YOUNG GUNS gang rattled off a 7-3-6 to
safely hold on to their early lead.

Finishing solidly in third overall in the eight-race, one-throwout
series was Annapolitan John Aras’ team, including John Dolan, Alex Stout
and Mark Eagan. “We only just got the boat a couple of days before the
NAs,” Aras said, “so we’re still figuring it out. The learning curve is
pretty steep.” Aras, who also was the top Corinthian (amateur) sailor
in the event, said the conditions and the tight competition were
challenging throughout the weekend, describing solid southwesterlies
coupled with big chop on Saturday and puffy, shifty northerlies on
Sunday that swung 20 degrees or more. “Getting through that chop was a
bit of a challenge,” he said.

“It was all about trying to be consistent and not making too many
mistakes, hitting the shifts and keeping clear air, ” he said. “A little
mistake could cost you five or six boats pretty quickly.” With five
top-five finishes and only one keeper worse than 10th, Aras and his team
showed that they’ve picked up a lot of boat knowledge in a short time.
“It was a lot of fun,” Aras said. “There was good breeze and Eastport
did a good job with the courses.”

Rounding out the top five was Andrew Criezis in 4th with WHIQUILA and taking fifth was Blake Kimbrough on NOSTALGIA.

The fleet was tightly packed most of the time, and the conditions
clearly took a toll as nearly everyone, including the top sailors, had
one or more finishes they would have preferred to forget. In fact, the
EYC Race Committee led by PRO Keith Jacobs had to weather their share of
challenges, too, particularly on Saturday when the weather mark blew
away in the building breeze during the day’s last race and the mark boat
crew had to sub in suddenly for the missing cylinder. Thanks for contributions from Todd Hiller- USA #207- and Dan Phelps/ Spinsheet.com. Full results and photos can be found here (and here). For more J/70 Fall Brawl sailing information